It is important to address thermal management in high performance devices within thermally constrained enclosures, where relatively small electronic systems do not have sufficient thermal mass or capacity to dissipate the peak heat generated in the enclosure. Also, developments in integrated circuit technology have led to high-performance integrated circuits having temperature spikes (i.e., high temperature changes in a short period of time). During operation, a high-performance integrated circuit may enter a “high power mode” causing it to overheat, which in turns causes short-term (and possibly long-term) failure. This high power state must therefore be monitored for overheating. One approach to monitoring temperature is a single controller configured to control power at predetermined intervals and perform a process to maintain temperature at a desired level. However, the predetermined intervals may be too slow such that overheating occurs quickly between consecutive intervals. Also, continuous running of the controller may draw unnecessary power consumption from an internal power supply causing decreased performance of the device.